Splitting a Soul~Chapter 26
Being inside the Gate of Themis was like having everything about me being ripped apart, put back together, and then ripped apart again. It was like my godly half and human half were at war, trying to find some kind of balance; even if that meant destroying each other. I managed to open my eyes just long enough to see that Aisling was pretty much in the same boat. She was thrashing around, almost looking like she was clawing at herself to rip out something crawling around inside her. I felt the same way, like something was about to pop out of my chest like in the movie Alien. Then something interesting happened. We were both enveloped in a bright light and then nothingness, no pain, fear, or even the light of the gate. “Where are we?” Aisling asked, looking around the seemingly endless room. “It looks to be some kind of space between dimensions,” I heard someone else say, I turned around to see another Aisling. In fact, there were a total of four Aislings standing around me. They looked the same, but seemed to have different personalities. The first one I noticed had looked scared, especially when she looked at the other three Aislings. Another appeared very confident and seemed to be very intelligent. Almost all the Athena campers had that same look to them, but it wasn’t just that. I could somehow sense which one was which. The other two gave off some bad vibes, with one making me feel like I should check my wallet and the last one looked like Aisling when she had gone full Mormo; that one was the easiest to tell apart from the others. “What is going on here?” I heard another voice say, I turned around to see…me? “It appears that the gate has split us up into the main parts of ourselves. I am the part of Aisling that is connected to Athena,” she said before turning to her other forms. “She is our human part, she is from Hermes, and that thing over there is the monster that has been devouring us.” “I will have your body!” Mormo Aisling yelled and lunged at the other three. All three pulled out their shield and axes, but only Smart Aisling and Trickster Aisling took part in the fight. My human half and I however were glued to the floor. “Aisling, perform a flanking maneuver to the right and attack from its side,” Wise Aisling suggested. “No way, this is way too much fun,” Trickster Aisling countered. I was starting to see where Aisling’s hyper-personality came from. Human Aisling however was off in her own part of the floor, curled up in a ball. “What are you doing?” I protested. “Don’t you want to help? It’s your body after all.” “I can’t do anything,” she said back to me. “I’m just a weak mortal girl.” I had had this conversation with Aisling before. I knew she was insecure about being a legacy, but her two halves were fighting to save themselves and it wasn’t going well. It was then that my own human half spoke up. “Yes you are part human, but that doesn’t make you weak,” he said. “Humans have some of the greatest potential of anything in the world. We even impress the gods sometimes.” “But we are weak, powerless, and small compared to the gods or even demigods,” Human Aisling protested. She then gestured to the other parts of herself. Wise Aisling was being pushed back and Trickster Aisling was losing ground. Mormo Aisling was growing even more powerful and began to absorb the other two parts into itself. “They would be better without me.” “No, they need you because the gods envy humans,” I argued. “We are the only beings that can decide what we want to be.” “So what do you want to be?” My human half added. “I…I…” Human Aisling said. She seemed unsure as she looked at the weakening forms of herself. However she rose to her feet with her ax and shield in hand. “I want to be a hero that can make my parents proud.” She rushed in and managed to hit Mormo Aisling with her ax, causing the monstrous form to scream in pain. The other two rose up, feeling new life flow into them. From then on, all three seemed to work as one. Wise Aisling would attack from the front while the other two would attack from the sides or from behind. It couldn’t keep track of all of them and became weaker and weaker. Meanwhile, the three Aislings began to glow golden light as they fought their demonic sister until she was almost powerless. The three Aislings then all hit Mormo Aisling with their axes, turning the monster into dust. A door on the far end of the room opened and the dust was pulled inside it. I could see the dark walls of the Underworld through the gate before it slammed shut. “Go Team Aisling!” Trickster Aisling said and put her hand out, looking at the other two with anxious eyes. “Alright,” both Aislings said as they rolled their eyes at the same time. They even had the same body language. They put their hands together and a column of light erupted around them. When the light faded, all that was left was one complete Aisling, the Aisling that was my friend. She had no signs of being a creature of the night and her face looked relaxed and the happiest I had seen it in a long while. “Thanks Ash,” she said happily, almost skipping around the room as she rejoiced that she was back in control of her own body. Just then a door on the opposite side of the room opened up and I could see the room with my friends and the Gatekeeper, who had managed to free himself from the ice. “I’ll see you on the other side.” Aisling then ran over to the doorway and slipped outside into the room. She hugged Kimi and just kind of shook Jack’s hand. The Gatekeeper didn’t seem all too happy about us at least delaying him long enough for us to use the gate. I went to follow but found myself still glued to the floor. “Can you move?” I asked my human side. He tried to pull his feet free, but found them stuck to the ground still. Then the doors leading out slammed shut again and I thought for sure I would be trapped inside forever. “What do we do now?” My human side asked me. I wasn’t sure, so I did the first thing that came to mind. I reached out my hand as far as it would go and when we touched, I felt our spirits merging together back into a single being. However I was still trapped inside the Doors of Themis.